BECHUANALAND: For Throne & Love

Not since Edward VIII gave up his throne for Wally Simpson had society anywhere suffered a comparable constitutional crisis. All week long, under giant camelthorn trees at Serowe, thatched-hut capital of the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland in South Africa, the tar-black chieftains of the Bamangwato tribe pondered and palavered.

Their lineal chief, strapping, handsome, Oxford-trained Seretse Khama, 27, sat among them as they weighed his choice for wife & queen. While studying law in England, Seretse had married Ruth Williams, 24, a fair-haired London typist. By Bamangwato custom the Chief may wed only with the consent of tribal elders. Seretse had not asked for such consent. He was summoned home to defend his action before the Bamangwato peers.

The Accusation. Some 9,000 tribesmen of the 100,000 Bamangwatos traveled hundreds of miles along the dusty trails of their Texaslike land, bringing their own chairs for the kgotla (parliament) at Serowe. They listened intently to Seretse’s most formidable accuser, his uncle and the tribe’s Regent Tshekedi. For 23 years, during his nephew’s minority and absence abroad, mission-educated Tshekedi had been the black boss of Bechuanaland and one of Africa’s outstanding native rulers.

A British high commissioner once deposed him because he ordered the flogging of a white trader who seduced Bamangwato women; London quickly restored the regent (TIME, Oct. 16, 1933). In 1947, when George VI & family visited Bechuanaland, Tshekedi greeted them in the full-dress uniform of the Royal Horse Guards, presented to his father by Queen Victoria.

Tshekedi ranged all his authority and prestige against Seretse. “Chiefs pass and are forgotten, but the country goes on,” he said. “Custom has been broken. It was a great wrong marrying this white woman. My nephew has killed us. He has made a precedent that the chief can marry without regard to or consent of the tribe.” He insisted on a divorce: “The white woman is not suitable for Seretse and the tribe.”

Other elders echoed the regent’s words. Exclaimed one: “If the chief’s wife sets me a task, I would do it. But if a white woman says, ‘Chop wood!’, I would answer, ‘How much?’ ” Another said: “Nobody can cast fire among the people he loves. If you bring this woman, the tribe will scatter and [pointing to a cattle stockade] you will be chief of these poles.”

The Judgment. Seretse fought hard for throne and love. He had support from many who had grown tired of Regent Tshekedi’s high-handed enlightenment (once the regent burned down the huts of tribesmen who defied tribal rulings). On the kgotla’s sixth day young Seretse brought the issue to a head. He leaped up with a challenge: “All those stand up who will not accept my wife!” Only 40 rose. Seretse shouted: “Who wants me for chief with my white wife, whom I refuse to give up?” Nearly 6,000 tribesmen responded with a thunderous standing “Yes!”

Tshekedi did not take defeat easily. “I warn you, my nephew,” he cried. “They are using you as a tool.” Then he announced: “I don’t wish to divide the tribe. This white woman comes, I go.”

As Tshekedi prepared to leave the Bamangwato reserve for strange pastures in southern Bechuanaland, Seretse waited impatiently for his White Queen from London. But the British government would have to give approval first. “An extremely difficult problem,” noted the Manchester Guardian. “Approval would scandalize . . . white South Africans . . . Rejection might irretrievably offend the [black] peoples . . . This is on its lesser scale a crisis comparable with the abdication of Edward VIII and its possible implications are almost unlimited.”